Guest post: The Secrets of Pitching Social Media

Made Social on 26 July 2010 | View Comments

In advance of Social Collective, we have been inviting select people to guest blog and join the SoCol debate, hopefully offering a fresh point of view. We have been asking a range of people to contribute, including those working in social, client side, techies, journos etc with a view of building a wider picture. Any questions raised during this process will be addressed during a panel at SoCol in September.

The latest in the series is from Paul Sutton, aka @ThePaulSutton, who’s taken a look at the differences in the ways agencies pitch social media to clients.

The Secrets of Pitching Social Media
Key learnings for both PR and digital agencies
By Paul Sutton

Back in the 1960s, San Francisco was the hub of a libertarianism counter-culture whose ideologies included the rejection of materialism, free love and experimentation with drugs. The hippie sub-culture spawned some truly historic events, including the Summer of Love and Woodstock. And the internet.

The original concept of the web, and of social media, was a leveller; a tool to empower ordinary people to gain access to knowledge and to share it with others. The Well the first ever social network and the forerunner of the likes of Facebook, was formed in the 1980s by the ex-lead singer of Woodstock-performing The Grateful Dead and was infused with an ‘anything goes’ attitude to ‘set information free’.

Fast forward 30 years, however, and we find ourselves in a situation where digital agencies are scrapping with PR agencies for the right to ‘own’ marketing on the social web, each jealously guarding the secrets of what they pitch to clients and how they pitch it, and each firmly believing that their process-driven or content-driven approach is the best. Well, I’m about to reveal those secrets.

Several months back I won a social media pitch and, having built a relationship with the marketing manager, I asked if it would be possible to see the proposals from all five other pitching agencies. I was delighted when a USB stick was placed in my grubby mitts and have since revelled in the secrets this small device has given me privy to. And in the true hippie spirit of The Well and of Social Collective, I’m going to share four of them with you for the benefit of all.

Secret 1: There are big differences between the way PR agencies and digital agencies pitch social media
No secret in itself, maybe, but do you know what those differences are? PR agencies focus more on adding value to the social web through content, and on generating the most inventive and engaging content they can. Digital agencies focus more on the delivery of content, and ensuring that the social web is touched in as many places as possible. Clearly, the most effective campaigns combine both approaches. Demonstrate this well in a pitch, and you’re onto a winner.

Secret 2: Pay attention to search
Digital agencies LOVE search marketing. They live and breathe keywords and Google algorithms and SERPS. In a proposal, this stuff looks impressive – we all love a good statistic, right? PR agencies’ proposals are typically barren of the word ‘search’ and ignore the valuable affect that their content–led approach can have; organic listings are almost viewed as a by-product of the creative process. Incorporating search marketing into a proposal keeps things rounded.

Secret 3: Be creative
Conversely, PR agencies LOVE creative ideas. In stark contrast to digital proposals, PR proposals are packed full of concepts and exciting content ideas; ways to generate coverage. Digital agencies tend to overlook this facet in proposals in favour of the mechanics of HOW they’ll implement their plans. Digital proposals talk about ‘user journeys’, ‘eye-tracking’, ‘information architecture’ and ‘reverse engineered competition’. PR agencies talk about the fun stuff. One approach is pragmatic and earthed, the other is engaging and social.

Secret 4: Balance is key
I was totally amazed at the sheer diversity within the five proposals I base these learnings on. Some focused on social media optimisation, placement of SEOd articles and the relevance of landing pages, while others ignored these completely in favour of creative campaign ideas on Facebook or YouTube or Twitter. It would be fair to say that not a single one of the six proposals (including my own) really hit the nail on the head in terms of covering all ground. So whether you’re a digital agency or a PR agency, aim for balance if you want to win that pitch.

Summary
We all want the best for the communications industry, no matter which side of the fence we sit on. It is my belief that by collaborating to fuse the different approaches of digital and PR agencies when talking to clients, we’ll all benefit. It’s something I’ve adopted at BOTTLE PR and am trying to implement wherever possible, and it’s paying huge dividends thus far. Maybe September’s Social Collective will truly reignite the sharing mentality of the original internet and prove to be a social geek’s Woodstock? Minus Jimi Hendrix, endless drugs and sexual abandon, of course…

About Paul Sutton

Paul is Head of Digital PR at Oxford-based agency BOTTLE PR, one of the UK’s fastest growing PR agencies. He’s responsible for devising creative social media strategies and ensuring that account teams make them work across the board to meet commercial client objectives.

With 14 years experience in marketing communications, Paul is very active across the social web under the rather modest handle, @ThePaulSutton, and blogs on social media and the evolving communications environment at Tribal Boogie and Social Media Today. He is fascinated by the psychological and cultural impact of digital media and the web, and his interest lies in completely integrated communications strategies. And wine.

View other posts in our quest blog series:

The social media strategy series: Is social media right for your business? by Gemma Went

Talk is cheap by Peter Bouvier

Show social or show business by Chris Hall

Back to the future… by Adam Vincenzini

Managing Client Expectation in Search by Chris Hyland

Get Excited And Make Things by Stuart Witts